Learning the Hard Way is Still the Best Way

Moses learned the hard way that he was Hebrew and not Egyptian. What we know about Moses and his calling has been gathered from Scripture: being the one chosen to see the Israelites freed from bondage. They were liberated in the end, and their journey to the Promised Land -- albeit coursed with peril -- was a welcome new beginning.

So it was with the men, women and children who fled the lands of their birth to escape despots and religious persecution -- to walk unfettered and unthreatened upon the new promised land: America. They risked all traveling thousands of miles to be counted amongst those who chose to face unknown dangers rather than bend or perish under the yoke of tyranny.

In 1781, America became a free and independent nation. Our Constitution was written not for the leaders but for the people -- for “We, the People.” This sacred document ensured that no imperial classes would be allowed to exist. There would be no monarch to set down archaic rules. It was by the sweat and labor of immigrants from all the world’s nations that America was created, in which hope and opportunity is limitless -- where Americans rule themselves.

These pioneers built this country, and this country built them into Americans. They cleared the land, raised homes and houses of worship and drew up colonies of free citizens, carving new states out of the forests, prairies and wilderness as they pushed westward. They carried freedom with them. Here a vast segment of humanity was given the chance to start fresh:

The English, the Scotsmen and the Dutch produced elegant furniture in their workshops in New England. The Italians worked the sulfur mines of Louisiana. The French and Swiss planted vineyards in California and New York State. Danes, Norwegians and Swedes seeded the earth and made the Midwest flourish with grain. It was Irishmen whom, in large part, constructed the Erie Canal, the Statue of Liberty and the eastern section of the transcontinental railroad.

Welshmen farmed, dug coal and quarried in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Among their descendants were William Penn, Thomas Jefferson, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Robert Morris - the foremost financier of the American Revolution and a signer to the Declaration of Independence.

The Spanish Conquistadores -- the first to roam the Southwest in the 1500s -- infused music, art, language, architecture and literature to the region. They brought from Spain the horse and cattle, and established ranches (haciendas) upon which these noble creatures could serve their owners. The Spaniards also introduced the rites of faith and built Catholic missions.

Mexicans worked the oil fields of Texas proficiently, and rode herd in New Mexico with equal expertise. Greek and Portuguese fishermen harvested the oceans. Germans, Hungarians, Russians, Slavs and Chinese all worked side by side with so many, many more peoples of diverse cultures -- and this great nation was built by the industry of such Americans.

America became the country where dreams were transformed into certainties.

Came then 2001, and our country was brutally attacked and is since being menaced by Islamic terrorists. Executing murder and mayhem against entities and persons American (and anything and everyone from the West; and all who are non-Islam) is the standing order handed down by their mullahs.

Compounding abuse with the damage and death suffered on that Tuesday morning six years ago, here in the United States there is a growing army of conspiracy theorists who are littering the intellectual landscape with their bent notion that the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Military had a hand in the monstrous events of September 11th. Additionally, our Congress, of which the majority are Democrats, appear to be attempting to countermand the efforts of our National Security Agency, and thereby playing straight into the hands of the very disciples of hell who are hell-bent on destroying us.

Terrorists and Democrats alike should be reminded of the following insofar as Americans are concerned:

In spite of everything, we never lose our faith in the future. We believe in the future. We build and will continue to build for the future. And when we’ve finished building, we develop something new and have to start re-building.

Deep down we yearn for peace. We take every route to avoid conflict. But when conflict is unavoidable we engage with a ferocity that is unrivaled to protect our freedom.

That’s the kind of people Americans are: we work and fight hard, and harder still, because we have the freedom to do it.

Beginning in 1777 at Valley Forge, Americans fought and froze, suffered and died for the future freedom of all Americans. Our freedom is the only way of living we know. We fought for it 300 years ago, 200 years ago, a century and a half ago, and in both world wars -- and continue fighting the same fight today.

Americans are slow to anger and easygoing, but merciless when our freedom is threatened, because we are passionately dedicated to the ideals our forefathers passed on to us: the liberty and dignity of all men.

We believe that if all men throughout the world could turn their energies towards peaceful coexistence the way Americans have turned their energies towards the construction of this great nation, wars would soon be as outdated as the soon-to-be-outdated death cry 'Allah Akbar!'

The pioneer Americans had to learn and adapt the hard way. They never failed to give thanks every day for what they had. And we, their descendants, must never go to sleep at night ashamed of our deeds, whether for ourselves, our country, or the world at large.



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Note from the author: Parts of this writing were inspired by a film prepared by the War Department during World War II, entitled, “Why We Fight World War II - The Battle of China / War Comes to America” (available on DVD), and I have blended -- and expounded upon -- segments of the film’s narration (read by the actor Walter Huston) into this commentary.